Economic Perceptions Still A Big Problem For Obama

(Week of 10/6/2012) Despite last Friday’s somewhat stronger-than-expected jobs report, perceptions of the economy continue to pose a major challenge for President Obama’s reelection campaign. There has been little change in whether people believe the economy is improving: in last week’s Economist/YouGov Poll, 29% thought it was; now 27% do.

On the other hand, there has been a drop of four points in the last week in the percentage of Americans who believe things are getting worse.

Just over 40% approve of how the President is handling the economy — not much changed from a week ago. As for his overall approval rating, it remains below 50%. This week, 45% approve, while 51% disapprove of how the President is handling his job.

While approval of President Obama’s job performance may not have been much affected by his poor debate performance last week, certain perceptions of him appear to have been affected negatively. Relatively few voters have ever described President Obama as "effective" in Economist/YouGov Polls. Just 35% said that about him a week ago. But now, after a debate that most Americans thought President Obama lost, that number is five points lower: only 30% now would describe the President as "effective."